"...what people know as experience hitches a ride on stories those people know; the stories shape what becomes the experience."

An identity scrub is a series of guided expressive writing sessions that center around a core  question:

 What is the plot of your self-story, and how do you, the main character, inhabit it ?

With the expansion of social media, our identity has become performative.
Our personality, sexuality, talents and dreams have been typed and cast on various social media platforms, and apps curate our authenticity. 

While this is certainly the case, the issues that were typed and cast with pen and paper have not changed. We still wonder who we are, what 'everyone' will think of us, and whether neediness motivates our behaviors. Our dreams and sources of inspiration have been sidelined by jobs, bills, children, and the need to present ourselves in one or another light on social media platforms. Our lives have fallen into less-than-satisfying patterns, and our self-stories have lost sight of their plot (and, consequentially their narrative arc).

In this spa we gently help you reconnect with these questions, and prompt you to reflect on them in new ways.  What about you is couched in the details of your life, and how can a shift in details refresh your perspective?  Consider how you, (the main character in your narrative?) routinely define and celebrate success, and cultivate curiosity about what you define as failure?

Through guided writing exercises an Identity Scrub opens a safe space and invites you to be curious. Arthur Frank suggests that our selves are, in fact, being  formed in what is told (in the trending words,  plots, and social narratives through which we communicate).

Spend some time having an Identity Scrub if you feel pulled to explore these topics and questions.
Be prepared to be surprised at how you tell (and re-tell) your story, and how re-writing and re-wording your experiences has the power to reconnect you to sources of strength, (re)construct your fears, discover wellsprings of courage (e.g. self-compassion), and reimagine the plot and  character arc of your self-story.

If you are still wondering whether an Identity Scrub might facilitate the right mental health self-care experience, ask yourself one key question: 

What about my ‘presentation of self’  genuinely makes me smile?